Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 136 mm × width 200 mm
anonymous
A Painting Made of Shells
Japan, Japan, 1797
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1986;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-611
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
For other surimono featuring similar screens with representations made of shells, cf. an anonymous very early design for 17852; a very similar egoyomi for 17973; a surimono by Shunman for the New Snake Year 18094; one by Hokkei issued for 18215; and a depiction of the Miyamoto Station on the way from Edo to Enoshima in Totoya Hokkei's series A Journal of a Trip to Enoshima, Enoshima kiko, for 18336. All these apparently feature identical screens, reflecting a common practise in the souvenir business of any period anywhere, whereby the same image is reproduced multiple times on a myriad of different objects.
Entry
A framed picture shaped as a two-panelled screen, depicting various flowers made of shells. To the right a maple leaf, a cherry blossom and an iris, to the left wisteria and another flower. The poem is written on the envelope at left, which contains several wooden sticks.
Small screens with representations made of shells were popular souvenirs of Enoshima Island in Sagami Province, a popular day-trip from the capital. As there was a major shrine devoted to the Goddess Benten on the island, associative thinking so typical of Edo-period (1603-1868) Japan led to Enoshima Island and its shells being linked to her. Benten is also associated with snakes, which live on land and in water, and her shrines are usually near water. Moreover, Benten came to be associated with the Year of the Snake; consequently, so were Enoshima Island and the shells found on the mainland beaches opposite the island. This connection is especially important in series such as those based on shells, e.g., Shinsai's series A Matching Game of Poems, Kasen awase, for 1809 (e.g. RP-P-1991-561); Hokusai's series A Matching Game with the Genroku Poem Shells, Genroku kasen kaiawase, for 1821 (e.g. RP-P-1991-474); and A Series of Shells, Kaitsukushi, by Hokkei, also for 1821 (e.g. RP-P-1958-347).
In this calendar print, egoyomi, the shapes of the shells or the stems also form the numerals 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11 and 12, indicating the long months of 1797 on the right panel, and those for the short months, 2, 4, 6, intercalary 7 and 9, on the left panel.
One poem by Miyako no Chikae [also Sanshotei, earlier Kintaro Chikae, a judge of the Yomogawa].7 The poem alludes to the flowers represented on the shell screen:
It is good to open the shell-screen around the time the Goddess of Spring also awakens - a happy New Year full of flowers.
Issued by the poet
Unsigned
Produced by the Shuchodo Studio, seal, in red, reading: Shuchodo
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 16
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'anonymous, A Painting Made of Shells, Japan, 1797', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.363064
(accessed 30 May 2024 23:39:39).